It's HARD to cope with life right after you get dumped.
So a group of scientists just studied three big strategies people use to deal with a breakup after a long-term relationship, and they used brain scans to see how well those strategies worked.
And they found there's no PERFECT strategy for getting over a breakup immediately, but there are some ways to cope a little better. Here are the results . . .
1. The best strategy is DISTRACTION. They found that when people distracted themselves with things like eating a bunch of food, they were in a better mood overall. But it didn't help them start to get over their ex, it just put off dealing with those feelings.
2. The second-best strategy is TRASHING your ex . . . like thinking about all the stuff they did that you hated. The study found that actually made people LOVE their ex less, which helps recovery . . . but it also put them in a worse mood, so there's a trade off.
3. And the worst strategy is ACCEPTING your feelings and saying things like, "It's okay to love someone I'm not with anymore." That didn't help people start to get over their ex OR put them in a better mood.
(Time)